Bankruptcy trustee wants judge to issue order

Credit: Chitose Suzuki

The U.S. trustee overseeing the Upper Crust pizza chain’s bankruptcy case wants the court to order the owners to appear and testify at a creditors meeting — or face sanctions and costs — after they were no-shows at two meetings.

An attorney for one of the owners chalked up his absence to a “lack of communication or misunderstanding.”

Meanwhile, a court hearing to set the auction date for Upper Crust’s leases for its 10 locations, licenses, equipment and inventory is scheduled for Monday.

Upper Crust filed for bankruptcy protection in October after defaulting on bank loans, the latest in a string of troubles. Following a 2009 U.S. Department of Labor investigation, it was ordered to pay $342,000 in back wages to 121 workers. Those workers later filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging they were pressured to return the wages. Then, Brendan Higgins and Joshua Huggard sued fellow co-owner Jordan Tobins and placed him on leave, alleging he improperly used corporate credit cards and diverted corporate funds for personal use. ZVI Construction also has filed a lawsuit against Upper Crust, claiming it’s owed $700,000.

A trustee was appointed last month to oversee the company due in part to “false accounting presented to the court and other parties” since its bankruptcy petition, court documents state.

Higgins and Huggard, meanwhile, failed to attend two creditors meetings last month “without any prior notice whatsoever,” a court document filed by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the U.S. Trustee states. “This conduct cannot and should not be tolerated,” the document states. “If (they) fail to appear and testify at the next scheduled meeting ... the United States trustee reserves all rights to seek sanctions and costs against (them).”

Yesterday, both men’s personal attorneys filed court documents stating their clients would be at the next meeting Dec. 13.